


There's a first time for everything

by decaffienateddefendorduck



Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-20 02:01:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11326335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decaffienateddefendorduck/pseuds/decaffienateddefendorduck
Summary: After “Da Bomb” Episode 2.15A little misunderstanding on where they stand.





	There's a first time for everything

As the case was winding down, Toby asks Happy if she wants to go to Kovalsky’s.

“You buying?” Happy asked.

“No, we have to return the satellite dishes.”

“I’ll bring the van around.”

Happy was a little disappointed that all Toby wanted was her help to reconnect the satellite dishes he had taken down earlier for their case. Usually he was loaded with innuendos that he would spew in her direction about how he would like to spend time with her, even in front of their co-workers. It did make sense for him to ask her, though, since she was the engineer. She got into her truck [changed to be more in character] and drove closer to the door, where Toby was waiting.

Since they had been hanging out, and making out, ever since they returned from Antarctica, she was assuming that they would hang out that night. After cases where they both almost died (and this one certainly counted as that: Toby from being blown up by the bomb strapped to Linda’s chest and Happy having Merrick point a gun at her) were always nights where Happy felt especially lucky to have Toby to turn to. Though tonight he was making it seem like they were just going to be working.

After Toby put the satellite dishes in the back, he climbed into the passenger side, grinning like a fool. “I’m pretty smooth, don’t you think?” he gloated.

“Smooth?” Happy asked as she started driving to the restaurant.

“Yes, smooth. Everyone in that garage thinks we’re going to re-install the satellites and go home. What they don’t know is that we will be spending the night together, like we have every night for the past month.” Toby was sitting back, looking entirely too pleased with himself. So Happy decided to try something.

“Oh, are we?” Happy started to feel more secure about him wanting to spend the night with her, so now she felt like giving the Doctor a taste of his own medicine. 

Suddenly the grin was gone. Toby turned to look at Happy as she drove, suddenly wary of what he thought had been the perfect way to get them both out of the garage, but not let any of their co-workers know that they were fraternizing. “Are we not spending the night together?” he asked apprehensively.

“You did make it sound like we were just finishing this job. Is there going to be more tonight?” Inside Happy was dying; she had never been able to fool Toby like this. If she could just keep her face impassive and keep looking ahead, maybe she could have him doubting a little, since he made her feel that way just a few minutes before.

Toby stopped looking at her, huge doubts flying through his brain. “I only thought we could, since we both almost died tonight, and after some pie, or a little hooch to calm my nerves, I was looking forward to watching some mindless TV with you on the couch.” Since ‘watching mindless TV on the couch’ had become a bit of a code phrase for them cuddling and kissing on the couch, Toby used it to try to lighten the mood. “And once we’re ready to fall asleep, I was hoping my super protective girlfriend would help me through any nightmares I may have that might include bombs, or rockets, giant vats of gel, or what I can only imagine Merrick’s blood spatter looked like. But if she’s unavailable I might just have to spend the evening with the bookies, preparing for this weekend and all the Super Bowl bets my charm can get me into. Maybe this is the year I win it all.” He stated this last bit more confidently than he felt.

“I haven’t said no, you just jumped to conclusions. But, since you have an alternate night planned, I hope your bookies can help you with your nightmares.” Happy wasn’t sure how this had gone wrong so quickly, but she was starting to wonder what she was even doing with him for the hundredth time.

Toby was visibly hurt by her mention of him spending the night with his bookies instead of her. She had just parked in Kovalsky’s parking lot, though, so he decided to stop this fight before it went any further. Happy turned off the truck, then started to get out, but Toby grabbed her arm with his left hand and placed his right hand along the side of her face pulling her in to face him.

“Hey. What’s going on here?” he asked gently.

“I’m not sure.” Happy replied trying not to look at him, because she knew he’d read the hurt in her eyes if she looked directly at him.

“You know I can solve this if you’d just look at me.” Toby sang.

So Happy brought her eyes to his for him to be able to glean any meaning out of them.

“Would you like to come over after we finish with the satellite dishes?” Toby asked while studying the minute movements of her face. “That’s a yes. Would you like to watch some mindless TV with me? Another yes. Will you help me during the night if I start to have night mares about giant vats of gel exploding?“ With this last question Happy’s face broke into a tiny smile and Toby said, “Ok, now we’re getting somewhere.”

Happy continued to stare at him with her small smile for a couple of minutes. Then she said, very quietly, “I’m glad you didn’t get blown up today. And I hope Walter cleans up all of the gel tonight, so we don’t have to chip hardened masses off the cement floor tomorrow.” As she was talking, Happy noticed a shiny patch on Toby’s forehead, so she reached into the back seat where there were some extra take-out napkins and cleaned it off for him. He smiled sheepishly at her for having to clean him up and then decided it was time to get out of the truck.

“Satellite dishes?” he asked. She turned with a nod and got out of the truck.

They made their way to the roof and Toby tried to help, but mostly Happy re-attached the dishes and sent Toby down to the restaurant to check the signal feed. He texted up that everything was working properly, so she gathered her tools and made her way down from the roof. After Toby left the roof, Happy couldn’t help but think of how their evening would have gone if she was with anyone other than Toby, the brilliant behaviorist. Without him reading her facial expressions, she would have started a fight, and ended up alone that evening. It was still a weird feeling, to be grateful to have someone in her life. She couldn’t help the smile that found a place on her face. She went directly to her truck to put away her tools and then looked into the diner to find Toby. He was just getting a take-out order, paying for it and talking jovially with the cashier. Human interaction came so much easier for him than it did for her. Again, she was grateful to have him in her life, so that she never had to pick up take-out again if she didn’t want to. Toby loved doing it. She was just getting into the driver’s seat as he came out with the food.

“I ordered our usual, I hope that’s okay.” He was still being a little hesitant with her, after their earlier misunderstanding.

“Sounds good. Thank you,” she said, smiling over at him.

“It looks like you’re feeling better. Want to discuss what happened earlier?” Toby asked.

“No. But I did realize something while I was putting my tools away. I’m grateful to have you in my life.” She wasn’t usually one to express how she was feeling, but she knew this was the kind of thing Toby lived for, so she let him in on her thoughts.

Now Toby was really shocked. They had certainly run the gauntlet this evening; from a bitter misunderstanding to her now admitting that she appreciates him. Defeated, Toby slumped down into the passenger seat while Happy started up the truck and drove them to his apartment.

“I thought hearing that would make you happy.” Happy stated, unable to hide her disappointment.

“I’m just trying to catch up, honey bun. I am over-the-moon from hearing you proclaim an emotion to me, but just a little while ago you were telling me to spend the night with my bookies. I’m just a little confused is all.”

“I’m sorry for that. I was just trying to play around. I couldn’t believe that you were buying my disinterest. I was a little hurt that all you wanted was my help with the satellite dishes, and then you were so confident that we were decided about tonight: you’re right, it all went sideways too fast. Thank you for stopping it before it got too far.”

She pulled into his apartment complex parking lot and turned off the truck. Toby was still slumped in the seat and staring straight ahead.

“Toby? We’re here.” Happy announced when he didn’t move.

Still he sat staring. Happy reached over and put a hand tentatively on his arm to try to shake him out of his stupor. “Toby?” she asked again, squeezing his arm. With the realization of her feelings dawning over him, he suddenly launched himself at her, pushing Happy into the driver’s side door and kissing her fervently, passionately, for all he was worth. She was caught off guard, but caught up quickly when she realized that nothing was wrong with him, and that he definitely wasn’t mad at her for trying to trick him.

When Toby decided that the kiss was over, and he noticed that Happy was mercilessly squeezed between him and the door, he moved away from her, but only enough to make sure she could breathe properly. “You love me,” he said, staring directly into her eyes.

Happy was speechless from the suddenness of the kiss, but now also from the suddenness of his understanding of her emotions, emotions she wasn’t yet sure about herself. Once she had control of her faculties again, she started pushing Toby away from her so she could get out of the truck. Running away from feelings was what she had always been best at, and though she didn’t want away from Toby, she did want out of this conversation.

“What?” she sputtered. “You’re crazy. We need to get inside so we can have our dinner before it gets cold. If Sly were here, he would be spouting off all of the ways the food could become deadly to us if we just let it sit out here.” As she rambled, she worked her way free from Toby’s attack and started climbing out of the truck. Since he wasn’t moving, she went over to his side and got the food, leaving him there, and going straight up to his apartment and setting the food out on the kitchen table.

“Well, she didn’t out right deny it.” Toby said to himself before slowly making his way out of the truck. Since Happy left all of the doors open in her haste to extricate herself from the situation, also not knowing which door he would want to use for his exit, Toby shut them all, and then he heavily trudged upstairs.

The front door was still open when he got there, but before he could close it, Happy saw him, jumped up from the table where she had already started eating, went out to the landing, and locked her truck. As she walked past him on her way out, she let her land trail across his body and when she came back in she nudged him out of the way of the door and closed it softly, locking it, too. She tried to avoid his eyes, instead grabbing his hand to pull him into the kitchen where, once back at the table she let go and sat back down in her place, eating the dinner he ordered for her.

“I didn’t know until I opened this, but it’s exactly what I wanted for dinner tonight. Thank you for reading my mind, again.” Happy started rambling while Toby just stared at her, shoulders slumped, disbelieving that she could want to avoid talking about her feelings so much that she would talk about anything else instead. 

When half of her food was gone she let herself notice that Toby was still just standing there, so she got up and went over to him. Still avoiding his gaze, she took his bag off his shoulder, his hat, and jacket off of him and went to put them by the door, where he usually kept them. When she got close to him again on her way back to the table, he tried to reach out and grab her, but she dodged his hands, going instead to his chair, which she pulled out and then finally looked up at him. In a much softer voice than the one she was using to ramble, she said, “Sit. Eat. Please?” Then she reached out for his hand and pulled him over to the table. “I know you want more from me, but I’m still trying to figure things out. Can we just have dinner, and watch some TV?” She pulled on his hand until he was in front of his chair and then pushed him down into it.

Toby seemed to wake up from his second stupor of the night when he realized he was trying to go too fast again. “I’m sorry, Happy. I shouldn’t try to put words in your mouth. I’m trying to go at your pace. I just got excited tonight. I’ll work on it.” 

He looked so sad as he said these words, and then tried to get up from the table. Happy, however, was still standing next to him, so she moved until she was directly in front of him, between him and the table. She put her hands on his shoulders and looked at him; she was extremely close, making it difficult for him to get up.

He continued, “I’m not hungry. I think I’m just going to go to bed.” As he said this he was trying to avoid looking at Happy, for the first time since they met.

“Oh, no you don’t.” She moved her hands to his face and moved it gently up toward hers. “You don’t get to be sad tonight.”

Hearing this put a little fire back into Toby’s eyes as he finally looked at her. “I don’t? I can be sad if I want to. I survived a bomb going off today. I then stopped another bomb from going off in this relationship and then got called ‘crazy’ for jumping to the conclusion that you love me, which you haven’t denied, I will add. And since you’re still here in my apartment, I’m sure that my conclusions are pretty accurate, as always. You don’t want to admit your feelings for me because you don’t understand them yet; fine, but I can spend one evening where I’m not constantly trying to make you feel what you can’t admit that you clearly feel. Please move; I’m going to bed.”

“No. You don’t let me run away when I want to spend time alone figuring out my emotions, so you don’t get to go and wallow with your conclusions,” Happy spat back at him.

“Wallow?” At her use of this particular word, Toby stood up, and they were even closer together, but neither one was touching the other, or moving away. “Just because I am tired and want to go to bed without dinner doesn’t mean that I’m wallowing.” Then his fire broke, and his whole demeanor softened including his stance. “Unless this is you telling me that you don’t love me, and never will; that you feel bad for using me as your personal space heater ever since we came back from the South Pole. Then I might have cause to wallow. But with how sad your eyes now look, that isn’t the case.” He grabs onto both of her arms and bends down to look directly into her eyes; they are now less than six inches away from each other. “Because you love me.” He said each word clearly to emphasize their meaning,

All of a sudden Happy starts to feel trapped. The table is behind her and with Toby holding onto her arms and having his face right in hers, she couldn’t move without shoving him. His chair was right behind him, so if she did shove him he could fall, and she didn’t want that. She felt the telltale pinprick of tears materializing and thought for a second that crying would get him to step away from her. No, this is Toby; he would only pull her closer, which she realizes is what she wants right now. So she did the only thing she could, which was to step closer to him, moving her head to the side to rest on his shoulder.

Her movement confused Toby enough that he let her arms go, so she grabbed his arms and put them around her waist and then put hers around his neck. He also stood back up, so her face was drawn down to his chest and she clung to him while she thought through the repercussions of just admitting to him that she was in love. She definitely didn’t want to give up any of the time they were spending together or the way it made her feel when he would look over at her and smile when they were at work. She could feel confusion wafting off of Toby, but she just stayed tightly wound around him while she thought through what it would do to her to tell him about these feelings. She is the one that started the feelings talk earlier. She should have done this thinking before she told him about her appreciation. If he decided to leave her now, it would crush her, so she would just have to stay this tightly wound around him. Then he couldn’t leave.

Toby broke the silence. “Happy?” He called her name because he couldn’t see her face. His hands moved from their place on her waist to up in the air and then to a more gentle place on her shoulders. He wanted her to look at him so he could see what was going on, but of course her face was turned away from him.

“Don’t leave me.” She whispered.

“What? I’m not leaving, Happy. I just want to go to bed.” He kept trying to move back to see her face, but she was holding him more tightly than she ever had before.

“I’m starting to feel like if I don’t tell you that I love you, you’ll leave. I can’t be without you, Toby.”

He could barely hear her, but he knew that her heart was breaking, because of him. And for some reason buried deep in a fear that he thought he could hear in her voice, she would not let go of him. “Oh God, Happy. I’m sorry. I’m pushing too hard. It’s fine, everything is fine.”

“No, it’s not. You need someone who is emotionally available and that isn’t me.”

“The way you demonstrate your emotions is fine. I’m the one to blame here, Happy. I’m pushing you too hard. I’ll stop. I’ll try to stop,” he added softly and moved his arms around her back, burying his face in her hair.

They stood there in their embrace for quite some time. Toby finally said very gently, after reviewing the entire conversation since they left the garage in his head, “Hey, I called you my girlfriend earlier and you didn’t deny that either. Happy, do you consider yourself my girlfriend?"

“No.” She denied this quickly. “And you’re not my boyfriend.”

He could hear the beginnings of playfulness enter her voice, so he decided to push her instead of letting his feelings get hurt. “What am I to you, then?” He tried again to pull back to see her face, but she still clung to him tightly.

“You’re my . . . my-“ She knew saying that he was her personal space heater could ignite another round of fighting, so instead she said, “you’re my gentleman caller.”

With that the awful tension was broken and she burst into such a joyful laugh that she had to let go of him, though her head was still on his chest, only now it was due to her being doubled up with laughter.

Toby had a smile on his face, too, but an incredulous one. He sat back down in his chair, which made Happy fall into his lap, since she was still laughing. She put her hands on his thighs to catch her balance, which made her stop laughing.

“I’m not sure if I should be offended by your outburst, or not. Do you not think I’m a gentleman? I guess I don’t really call on you, you mostly call on me, since we spend most of our time together here,” he started to muse.

As Toby talked, Happy was just staring at where her hands landed. Toby noticed that she was staring at his lap, so he looked down, too, and asked, “Happy? Everything okay?” 

Hearing her name brought her out of the trance she had fallen into. She moved only her head to look up at Toby and now there was something completely different in her eyes, something Toby hadn’t see before. Sure they had been in close proximity before, but they had both been cognizantly keeping away from each other’s lower front quadrants. Happy squeezed his legs, then stood up fully and said, “I think this dinner is a bust. Want the left-overs in the fridge, or do you just want to throw it all away?”

Toby just said “Fridge” and sat still with his mind going a millions miles an hour. He was pretty sure that Happy had just been objectifying him, and wasn’t sure what to make of it, or of any of this crazy evening.

Happy took all of the food from the kitchen table and put it in the fridge. When she was finished, she didn’t exactly trust herself to go over to Toby, not with the thoughts currently roaming through her mind about where her hands landed and how close they were to – No! She couldn’t think under-the-clothes-thoughts. This wasn’t a friends-with-benefits situation, and he certainly wasn’t a booty call, either. She wanted a relationship with him, but was he her boyfriend? Her secret boyfriend, since none of their colleagues could know. She made her way past him and sat on the couch, turning on the TV, but not registering what show was on.

Toby was suddenly exhausted. He stood up and started heading toward the bedroom. Happy saw him going to bed, so she called out, “fine, you’re my boyfriend.”

Toby froze for a second, and then turned to look at her. He just shook his head in bewilderment and turned back to keep walking to the bedroom.

Seeing that he was determined not to go to her, Happy launched herself off of the couch and before he knew what was happening, Happy crashed into him, sending him into the wall. But she didn’t stop there, she pulled his head down into a kiss. This second pull was too much for the already off balance Toby and they both fell to the floor, with Happy taking the brunt of the fall.

“Ooph!” Their rapid exhalation of breath stopped Happy’s kiss, but she decided to take advantage of their current situation, wrapping her arms and legs tightly around Toby. He was trying to get off of her, so he was now too far away to kiss; instead she just looked up at him, squeezing him tighter.

“Happy, I’m crushing you. Let me get up.”

“Not if you’re just going to try to leave again. I want to celebrate.”

The way she was looking at him was definitely new, but Toby was caught up on the word ‘celebrate’. “What do we have to celebrate?” he asked.

“I just acknowledged that we are in a relationship, dummy. And you keep declaring my love for you. Plus I just really want you. Right. Now.” There it was again, this new look in Happy’s eyes that Toby had yet to catalog. He was thinking it was probably lust but he had only seen that on her face in his dreams, or when she looked at certain machines.

“Whoa, I am not emotionally ready for this,” Toby said, a scared look in his eyes as he tries to pry Happy’s limbs from around him with one hand, while still trying not to crush her, so his other hand was holding himself up. After he manages to get one limb loose, she just keeps putting it right back when he moves on to another one. He does manage to get up onto his knees with her still clinging to him. After her declaration was over, she proceeded to attack him; she was now able to get her mouth closer to him, so she starts kissing anything she can reach. As he is still focused on getting her off of him, and since he is now able to use both hands, he continues pulling one arm, then one leg of hers off while she proceeds to kiss whatever part of him is closest, which ends up being a lot of shirt.

Admitting defeat, Toby sits down on the floor cross-legged and she settles down into his lap. He wraps his arms tightly around her to get her to stop kissing him, one hand on the back of her head. 

“Happy, please stop.”

She hears what sounds like desperation in his voice, and with a sigh she says, “You know you are more vocal and I am more physical. It’s easy for you to say that you love me, but it’s harder for me. Once I turned three, I didn’t hear those words again for over twenty years.” Toby started to loosen his grip on her so that she can look at him, her kissing attack quelled for the moment. “It’s easier for me to show you how I feel, so let me show you, please?” She was now looking into his eyes, pleading with him as she leaned up to place a gentle kiss on his lips, which were finally within her reach.

When she pulled back again, Toby was looking at her with such love, she hoped she had the same look for him on her face.

“You did it,” he said gently. “You told me.” He continued smiling at her, staring into her eyes. “Can we just go to sleep like this Happy? I don’t need anything else tonight, and frankly, I’m spent. Can I just hold you tonight, and then tomorrow we can revisit your apparent ‘needs’?”

Pouting a little, she kisses him gently again, and then gets up off of his lap. She helps him up and takes his hand, leading him into the bedroom where, after getting ready for bed, they fall asleep in each other’s arms.


End file.
